Overall, just okay. Being from the states, maybe I'm a little extra choosy with my BBQ…read more I ordered the half rack of ribs with 2 XXL wings - wings were over cooked, so one part of the XXL wing was inedible. Barely any sauce. The ribs were decent - definitely not fall off the bone type, but okay tasting. I asked for sweet potato fries, even with an upgrade charge, but alas, the service wasn't the best. So I got the regular fries - which were probably my favorite part of the meal. They were the thinner kind so not the typical "chips" - which I like! The BBQ sauces - 5 choices - I didn't care for any of them. The tangy coleslaw also wasn't a hit with me. $20 or so for the ribs/wings meal & a large Pepsi max.

It had been awhile since I'd been here and my boyfriend was a reds true bbq virgin. So on date…read morenight we came here in which I was really excited about remembering past memories. Luckily I had booked on a Friday night. As we were walked to our table we were informed that there was no jerky or draft beers (same 5 years ago!) Anyway I chose the luxurious salted caramel and choc shake with rum (£8) which was divine and pawed the menu. They had drastically changed this. There are now more veggie and fish choices. Apart from the starters I didn't find the mains that inspiring. Anyway we decided to share some bbq wings for starters and himself had the brisket burn ends for main while I had the pitmaster for £18. The wings arrived in a tasty sauce and were fairly large. When the mains arrived my heart sank. I had to double check mine..it had the ribs..cheese sausage..meaty beans..and another pot of beans but no pulled pork or crackling ..my boyfriend's was dry brisket on soggy bread with greens..the burnt ends were nice. Anyway he left most of his and to be fair they were really understanding and the manager sat down with us to discuss the food. In the end my boyfriends meal was taken off the bill ans mine halved in price.. the way it was handled didn't leave a bad taste in my mouth and would try it again in the far future.

As a rule, any restaurant that you walk into which has kitchen roll on the tables as standard, is…read morelikely to show you a good time. Smokies has two venues, one in Darwen and one in Chorley. As Chorley is nearer to me, we decided to try this one. I like that when you walk in, it already has a warm atmosphere, created by varying lighting, high ceilings, and lots of wood in the decor and furniture. In fact later in the evening, one of the owners would tell me that she loves upcycling, and the wood from the bar came from a Scottish distillery, and the tables throughout were made from old casks from the same distillery, simply sanded and oiled, and that what I thought was a table number on our table was in fact one of the original barrel numbers! I love a bit of provenance! I was surprised to find that the restaurant goes further back into another room, and even has another floor with even more seating for diners! As we entered we were welcomed warmly by who I assume is one of the owners (mentioned above). She checked for our booking and pointed us to our table. Another member of staff brought our menus and explained about the specials menu, and specials on the chalkboards throughout the restaurant. The menu is a vegan's nightmare and a carnivore's wet dream! Delicious meaty starters and mains, a section dedicated to meat from the smoker, and even a couple of sharing platters all described in a way to make your mouth water before you get chance to order. This is a proper southern States style bbq joint, their mantra is "real food, real smoke, real slow", and despite that very much being accurate given their quality offerings, the prices are incredibly decent. We decided on the "couples platter" which was beef brisket, pulled pork, half a rack of ribs, chicken wings, home-made sausage, fries, coleslaw and beans... and it was just £20! In fact including the starter and drinks, the whole bill came to less than £35! CRAZY! So before our platter main, we ordered some nachos as a starter. You know what nachos as a starter tends to look like if you go somewhere like Chiquito etc... about 6 doritos with a blob of melted coagulation-dried cheese and some jalapenos on top. We... weren't expecting what we got from Smokies! We got a huge tray full of nachos, covered in nacho cheese sauce, freshly made guacamole, pineapple salsa, (you also get jalapenos, but we asked for them without) with side pots of guacamole and sour cream. It made me swear when it arrived. They were miles beyond the usual doritos-nachos starter you usually get. They were fresh, with perfect crunch, the salsa was fruity and fresh, the cheese was excellent, and it was incredibly moreish. We found ourselves even mopping up the tiny bits at the end with our fingers... thank god for that kitchen roll and wet wipes! Our main platter arrives just after a side portion of fries each. I ordered plain with pitmaster's salt, and my partner ordered cheeseburger fries from the specials menu, which was the same fries but with bits of burger meat, cheese, and chipotle relish! They came with really lovely fresh coleslaw, and what he says as some of the best beans he's ever had... beans with brisket mixed in! HEAVEN! The fries themselves were hot, crisp, and perfectly seasoned. Absolutely perfect. Then just as they arrived, we were brought out our platter! The owner I mentioned earlier then came over to us and explained to us fully about our platter, what meats were what, how the meats were prepared, down to information about the pink smoke ring on the brisket. It's really nice to see that amount of passion and enthusiasm go into food! This platter was excellent. The sausage was flavourful with a spice which didn't get you at first, but which snuck up behind you and slapped you in the fact afterwards! The chicken wings were so tender that you could suck the meat off the bones. The pulled pork was absolutely perfect, and the brisket was so tender that I swear it literally melted in my mouth. This is the best brisket I've had! Even the pickled cucumber provided was pickled by them in brine using the flavours from the smoker, and was described as a 'palate cleanser' as it was fresh and tangy. Really good! I could imagine it on a burger quite easily! There were also their own blend of sauces on each table comprising of a sweet BBQ sauce, American style mustard, and Louisiana style hot sauce. I imagine they were lovely, but as the meat itself was so amazing as it was provided, I really didn't get chance to try them as they weren't needed! Maybe next time! At the point I was about to try the ribs when the chef/pit-master came into the dining area, and was even introduced to us. When we talked to him about the quality of our meal, his enthusiasm and passion for the real deal of southern BBQ was evident, from how he does it and his smokers, to the difference between competition cooking and regular cooking. It was genuinely fascinating to hear, and as I said, a real

Great American food. Just not great service the employees act like your bothering them and one lady…read morespecific with red hair and a nose ring is rude as hell.

Great American food. I'm from America and the chicken sandwich and the wings were superb. Drinks…read morewere great but prefer the regular fries over the animal fries

Absolutely love this place ... I've been twice now and had 2 different burgers and they were both…read moreas amazing as each other. This visit I had the sloppy joe. This was a burger patty (with lettuce, tomato and onion), topped with brisket chilli, cheese and soured cream with chives. I didn't want to embarrass myself by picking it up and it being all sloppy so I ate the chilli first and OMG it was one of the best chilli I have ever had. I wanted more. The burger was wonderfully juicy and perfect. There was a selection of sauces at hand on the table from tomato sauce, bbq sauce, a horseradish style bbq sauce and French's mustard. I think I also saw some baconaise on a bar type table. I upgraded my fries to sweet potato fries and they tasted amazing. From the looks of them they were fresh and not frozen ones ... made that day it seems. On the side I had a pot of links which was a tin pot with a couple of cut up spicy sausages ... they had a nice kick to them and they were very nice. I went around 6pmish on a Friday night and it was very quiet ... I hope it picks up later as I would hate for this place to close as I love it. The server was absolutely lovely and the whole place was nice and clean, had a good feel and look to it and is just top notch.

So it was date night and I asked what cuisine he fancied.. smoked meat was the…read moreresponse...automatically I said Reds but then thought hmm where else is there.. This place popped up..looking at the menu online the Big Smoke sounded like a winner. Pulled pork..brisket ..burnt ends..sausage..chicken..corn on cob and fries for £40 ..nom nom nom. It was the first time I had walked into a restaurant knowing what I wanted. What was a pleasant surprise was seeing a sign advertising 50% food Monday. This was quite a large place with bare floorboards and metal tables. It took awhile to be served which the kind waitress apologised. Instantly we ordered with a Very Berry Tale cocktail and a flat white. The cocktail arrived first. It was very well made but I guess for £8.50 I was expecting that. The food arrived on a metal platter which cooled downed the food significantly due to it being placed on a cold metal table..a wooden matt would have remedied that. Now the food itself..if i had paid full price I would have been unhappy. All the meat was dry and tasted like left overs. The meat I enjoyed was the burnt ends and sausage. The beans didn't taste like they had been cooked in the sauce for very long and the condiments tasted watered down prebought products. We had to remind staff about the coffee at the end and we fed back to the waiter our observations. Would we come back? No is my answer unfortunately it felt like a lesser quality Reds True BBQ. Staff were nice when you could get hold of one though.

Booking the monthly girly night we had originally planned to visit Bembrasil. However after…read morereading Mark B review he has said he wouldn have rated it higher if he had not attended Fazenda. Looking at the website I thought it was worth spending that extra fiver as it looked swisher. Using the websites booking system it was very simple to pick out slot for 19:30. On arrival there was a reception desk who immediately acknowledged us and a waitress who I felt had been waiting for us led us immediately to a comfy leather booth. The waiter who served us for the rest of the evening queried whether we has been before. When we all shook our heads he explained that after helping ourselves to the salad bar we would simply flip this carded disk to green when we wanted meat and red to stop. After choosing a fazenda cocktail and malbec we waited for our drinks before we set off. The booth was stunning we were walled in by bottles of wine . In front lay the well presented salad bar and the lighting in general made it feel eloquent. Browsing the salad bar made me happy it consisted of various cheeses, sushi, stuffed peppers, dolmas, asparagus, stir fry, mushroom and other rices, roast potatoes, pork stews, prawns in mango, whitebait, chorizo and many others . Basically it wasn't your average salad bar it was creative and hard not to go mad with it. Sitting down with our catch we flipped the disk to green and let the meat commence. The service was so frequent and attentive there were no gaps on waiting for meat when it was set to green. We had beef skirt, pork belly, chicken hearts (thought I would give it a go!) Rib eye steak and various other cuts of meat cooked to my standard I.e rare. However my friend was a well done person so the waiters would cut bits from different parts to ensure this. After devouring some minted lamb the waiter asked if there were anything else on the meat menu that we had not tried. Spying the chicken and bacon, black pudding and Gammon with pineapple we selected these. What I noticed is that they do have a veggie option of pumpkin and goats cheese risotto and gnocchi. They also offered tuna steak for pescaterians. To finish I chose a light sorbet consisting of raspberry, scoop of mango and a third scoop of lemon and lime. Overall I could not fault the service so we agreed to the service charge. The ambiance was great and the food. For £32.60 A head I would say it's worth it. I would suggest it's good for groups and couples.

We came in after a long day of travel looking for a decent meal. The food was great, but perhaps…read moretoo much of it. If you go, make sure to flag down the guy with the grilled pineapple. Everything was good, but that was top notch. Beware one thing, this place is loud.

I have eaten Korean food all over the world, and this is very close to authentic. I usually order…read moreChampong if they serve it, but they don't serve it at Ban Di Bul, so I ordered what I considered the next closest thing, Spicy Seafood Ramen, and it was excellent. Noodles were perfectly al dente, the seafood was a little sparse, but there were mussels, shrimp, and calmari. I always take in the locale and give some leeway. However, this was excellent. I wish that they would've included banchan (side dishes) like they do in many countries.

Overpriced food, overly busy, very loud ambiance, and the food was just ok…read more I would try other venues, plenty around.

I really wanted this to be a 5-star experience, and a place for great BBQ in England near where I…read moreoccasionally work. But it was not to be. That said, there is a lot of really exceptional things about this restaurant, not least is the wide range of music pumped through the speakers here -- not loud, just perfect in fact. I've been enjoying just sitting here listening to the blues / soul /country / eclectic / 60's / Amy Winehouse / etc. ... The sides were all awesome, something even some of the great BBQ places let slip. I was very happy with the grilled watermelon, the fries (skinny like the U.S.), and the creamed corn. You should be quite happy with any of those. Four-stars is still good, and as always, you may love what I go "meh" to. The atmosphere is funky and clean, with the right touches of kitsch, not overbearing. The menu is broad, and I'd definitely try the beef ribs next time; they sounded very good but I decided to stick with St. Louis style ribs to be able to compare apples with apples. (I usually sample pork ribs to compare BBQ places on the same dish.) They do not offer brisket, which may be understandable, as brisket can be difficult to get right. Service was pretty good, although it wasn't a full restaurant this Saturday afternoon. In short I enjoyed everything except the ribs, which were good, with the following opinions of how they could have been great. First off, the ribs were very meaty, and cannot be faulted for that at all! They seemed to be cooked right, although here is the first point of contention: Either the pork in the British Isles is not marbled like the great BBQ places in the U.S., or they cook the fat out of it. Judging from a previous experience I had in Dublin, I suspect that the pork is just very lean. For me, that equates to less flavor and a dryer texture. The other thing which I would love to see is a fearless addition of smoke to these ribs. To be honest, I couldn't taste it, and the "smoke ring" in the meat was barely denting the surface. I can't give a restaurant with "Smoke" as a predominant part of its name 5-stars unless the meat lives up to it. So if you like a simple but big chunk of meaty, lean pork, that's what you'll get here, and you may have a five-star experience.

This was a impromptu visit. Initially we thought we were headed out to Jacks Smoke house, but when…read moreour friends pulled up here we realised we got our wires crossed. Inside was very busy, with a small number of tables, sitting down at the menu I found it a little limited. It entails a couple of hot dogs, a few chicken/meat burgers served with waffles, patties, various fries and a handful of starters. The only fish I spotted was bubba gump shrimp with chorizo. If you were a veggie they had just the one veggie burger option. First off I ordered a caramel milkshake , my friend had the nutella one while others had beer.. Both shakes looked impressive with tons of cream , garnished with tasties..however all the syrup had ran down mine and had just a one dimensional taste to it ....I didn't feel it was worth a sticky mitt. For starters fiery hot wings, pulled pork spring rolls and Shrimp were ordered.. My wings were meaty but just tasted like someone had literally poured a generic hot sauce over them..the spring rolls,,, I did try some and could not help but think the cheese burger spring rolls in Solita were much nicer. ..The shrimp was tasty but there was not a lot of it to justify the cost. Starters and drinks gone I opted for a Death Row cocktail at an average priced £7.50.. This had a cool presentation again with a syringe full of red stuff that you injected into the drink...This tasted like weak lemonade with cherry laced through. I felt stuck what to order for my main, Everyone else opted for Chicken waffle stack with maple syrup and peanut butter?? Mac and cheese burger and a Yard burger full of various meats as well as a pattie, full of onion rings..I decided on the buttermilk chicken... Once again presentation was good however my burger got soggy quickly and I found it uninspiring. Everyone else appeared to enjoy their food...the peppercorn fries were the highlight.. Overall the market is crammed with diners like this i.e American style burgers so for me it has to be innovative and really tasty to stand out. The only thing I remember about the décor were the stairs leading upward to the toilet being old , crooked and needing replacing The service was good however I just found the food to be a let down for the cost. I personally rather try Jacks Smoke House next time. .

Excited to come to Bem Brasil for a friend's birthday and was pretty happy with our experience. We…read morecame on a weekend but yet there wasn't a ton of people which is quite nice because for restaurants like these, its honestly pretty hard to walk in and immediately get a seat. Here are my favorite items: - Polenta Frita - Even though polenta is one of the top food items in Brazil, a lot of braiziliant restaurants actually surprisingly don't have this on their menu. Was very surprised that Bem Brasil had this and that it was actually delicious! I appreciate that the polenta retained a lot of its natural flavors and that it didn't fall apart immediately when you put it in your mouth. Loved the crispiness on the outside too, definitely a good mix against the fries. - Pao De Queijo (Cheese Bread) - Cheese bread in the UK is superior to cheese bread in US Brazilian Steakhouses and this place is no different. The cheese bread tastes like a popover and it was super cheesy on the inside but not like the usual pull apart kinds but rather it was ingrained cheese taste which I appreciate. - Presunto Defumado (Smoked Gammon) - I think a lot of other meats had a lot of flavor on the outside but not a ton on the inside, so its nice that this one (even though it is just ham) has a ton of flavor throughout. Goes well with the other more flavorless meats. Overall, not a bad experience at all. WIll this be the best Brazilian Steahouse you ever had? No. But if you do have this craving and you don't want to wait for hours for no seating, Bem Brasil is probably your next best option.

I came here for dinner with my 8 year old daughter a couple of nights ago. We are visiting from…read moreCanada. The service was outstanding. The waitstaff, the servers, everyone was incredibly accommodating and friendly. The salad bar was decent (a tad small) yet it contained the most delicious garlic cabbage dish, and the mushrooms were amazing. Also the garlic bread was probably one of the tastiest garlic breads I've had in my life I kid you not. Perfect cheese, perfect softness and melted in your mouth. Onto the meat...the lamb, and the bacon wrapped chicken were dry. But the chilli chicken, the sirloin steak and then cheesesteak were simply out of this world. Those items alone are worth the price of admission and I will try my best to return just because of that. Simply outstanding!

We had a real struggle finding a good burger in England. Our burgers at Almost Famous were the best…read morewe had in a month of travel. They have an assortment of eclectic burgers on the menu. They will happily customize your burger for you. Our burgers were 5 stars and so were the fries. There's a great lunch special, a full bar, and super service. The decor at Almost Famous is as eclectic as the burgers. It was a great lunch.

Had a wonderful experience here! Our server was delightful, bartender also awesome and vibe all…read morearound was just GREAT! Drinks were strong and cold and the burgers were next level amazing!! So good. Just happened to stroll into this place and we were so incredibly surprised and delighted.